ALICE JEGHELIAN

1928 - 2014

Jeghelian, Alice Alice Jeghelian, 85, died June 21, 2014 due to complications from a stroke and a weakened heart. Born on August 8, 1928 to Harry and Mary Jeghelian. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Class of 1949, Alice had just attended her 65th reunion on Memorial Day weekend. She was active and dynamic, just a month and a half away from her 86th birthday. She was the embodiment of "the uncommon woman" as defined by Mount Holyoke College president Richard Glen Gettell in 1958. Alice loved Mount Holyoke; she graduated with a bachelor's degree in English, made lifelong friends there, and had a lifelong association with the College, always active in local alumnae clubs, and serving as president of the alumnae association in retirement. At Mount Holyoke, Alice found her passion for higher education and learning and caught a glimpse of her future career, which was exclusively with academic institutions. Starting in clerical positions at Harvard and MIT, Alice returned to Mount Holyoke as Assistant Director of Admissions. She went on to earn a Master's Degree in Education from Harvard and a PhD in Counseling and Psychology from Boston College. While studying for her PhD in the late 1960s, Alice worked at Northeastern University as Assistant Dean of Women and assumed the informal role of spokesperson for the administration during that turbulent period. She said she was somehow always "on the spot," and the experience was extremely valuable in her developing career; it taught her the importance of keeping communication open, with an eye always toward a common goal, and proceeding one step at a time. While finishing her PhD, Alice began working at Boston College, where students were just beginning to articulate protests. Once again Alice was asked to "find out what was going on --- what do the students want." Few at the conservative Jesuit university were aware of the intensity of student feelings. One of Alice's assignments at Boston College was to act as an interpreter for both sides. She was appointed to a special committee established by the President for the sole purpose of "bridging the gap." The committee's findings were a key influence in bringing about major changes in the treatment of women students. To further enable this effort, the President named Alice his Special Assistant to help in the overall evaluation of the university's efforts. For twenty-five years subsequently, Alice continued her work as an advocate on behalf of women and minorities at Boston College. With her title of Special Assistant to the President and Director of Professional Development, Alice gained a reputation of having no fear in approaching strict Jesuit administrators with complete candor in the then-controversial arena of affirmative action and equal opportunity, insisting that the College's reputation of high educational standards must be evaluated by the same standard of excellence in its conduct of civil rights. Alice was a thinker and a planner and a doer. She was a woman of action. She was a woman ahead of her time. She wore a button that said "Uppity women unite!" She had a bumper sticker that read "Subvert the dominant paradigm." She did both! Along the way she lived large and laughed and enjoyed life. To her little sister Jaye, Alice was like a second mom because their mother was frequently working long hours helping their father run the family store. Alice became synonymous with everyday life for Jaye. Throughout their lives they visited each other back-and-forth across the country, talked frequently, and always laughed. Always. Alice started out being Jaye's big sister but ended up her best pal. To her nieces and nephews, Alice was Super-Aunt "Auntie Alice," who, disguised as Dr. Alice Jeghelian, outspoken administrator for a prestigious metropolitan university, fought a never-ending battle for equality, opportunity, and equal pay. She taught them card games, and word games, and songs. She sang in choirs throughout her life and had as much fun singing Beethoven's Ode to Joy as John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. When Alice retired in 1994, after twenty-five wonderful years at Boston College, she moved to Bradenton, Florida. She was a Bostonian through and through, but she truly loved her life in Florida. It suited her so well. She completed training as a Court Mediator and was appointed Mediator for the Small Claims Court, 12th District, Manatee County. She sang in the Anna Maria Island Chorus and Orchestra and served on its board of directors, including as treasurer and vice president. Alice always enjoyed painting in watercolor and pursued it in earnest in retirement. She found no end to social and cultural activities with old and new friends and her loving family, which she said enriched and rewarded her. When Alice was young, her brother Leo used to say to her, "you're awesome." She was awesome. She was an uncommon woman. Alice leaves her brother Leo Jeghelian, sister Jaye Howes and husband William, niece Lisa von Wendt and husband Jan Paul, niece Susan Jeghelian and husband Kevin Curtin, nephew Leo S. Jeghelian and wife Linda, great nieces and nephews Elliott, Isabella, Francesca, Sarah, Peter, Samuel, and countless friends and admirers. A private memorial service was held on 6/27/2014 at Breslin Funeral Home, Malden, MA. (www.breslinfuneralhome.com) and was followed by interment at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Arlington, MA. Donations in Alice's memory can be made to Anna Maria Island Chorus and Orchestra (www.amicco.org).